What happened when two new COVID-19 cases were traced back to airport cargo employees at Shanghai Pudong International Airport? Over 17,000 workers were forced to test…immediately. There were also reports and video of passenger revolt. The ordered chaos that ensued is a sight to behold.
Chaos Turns To Order At Shanghai Pudong Airport
I’ll say quite bluntly, I digest all news coming out of China with a grain of salt. By all accounts, China has done a masterful job of containing COVID-19. We do know objectively that life has returned to “normal” in most Chinese cities. Yet I find it incomprehensible, even with enviable testing and contact tracing, that case numbers are so low. But what happened at Shanghai Airport demonstrates a remarkable ability to execute rapid testing, something we can all learn from. And it also shows, if unverified news reports are accurate, that the power of the Chinese state is not limitless.
After the exposure was detected, nearly 18,000 workers from the cargo handling section of Shanghai Airport were ordered to immediately test. Pictures and video circulating online of “100,000 people rushing to leave the airport” before they were “locked in the airport basement for 14 days” appear to be a mischaracterization of what occurred. Per the South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong newspaper of record, only airport cargo workers were tested.
However, multiple reports suggest that authorities initially planed to require testing from every passenger, which led to a sudden “lockdown” followed by mass resistance from travelers:
*Chaos at Shanghai Pudong Airport after three recent confirmed COVID-19 cases are airport workers. #上海 #浦东 #China pic.twitter.com/cHcwcRay9d
— ChinaPropertyFocus (@ChinaPropFocus) November 22, 2020
Although resistance is generally futile in China, officials gave up and passengers were allowed to depart without testing. Over 300 flights were cancelled, though.
A video from the Global Times, a state-run propaganda news outlet, shows perfect order:
#Shanghai Pudong Airport started on Sunday night testing all staff after the airport found several cargo handlers and close contacts tested positive for the #coronavirus over the past several days. https://t.co/nQvgzTxYvb pic.twitter.com/hqoA1H8cpk
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) November 22, 2020
18,000 workers were tested throughout the day and already over 11,000 negative resets have come back.
CONCLUSION
There’s still questions over what that video above was about. But it appears initial plans to test all airport passengers was scaled back after a mass revolt (with no social distancing…). Overall, though, China’s ability to rapidly test so many airport staff is a model to emulate.
image: Weibo
China is running circles around the US about how to contain the virus. Texas hospitals are full capacity.
Doctors should stand at the hospital door with guns and tell people to go back home and not give in to the hoax. Maybe go hug a few Republican politicians in solidarity.
I’ve read a number of stories regarding “no social distancing” and China now, and I feel like I should elaborate that the concept barely registers there.
I doubt public health agents at the airport, employees or passengers felt the need to stay the recommended two meters away from everyone else.
While the technical term in Mandarin exists, (an quan jui li” or “safety distance”), social distancing isn’t the primary tool used by the government to combat the pandemic, and in many urban areas, would be very difficult to implement.
Instead, widespread availability of PPE, testing, a general lack of community transmission, and swift reaction to even a whiff of infection has generally meant that outside of an area that’s locked down or for those entering the bubble, things are NORMAL normal. Like, pre-pandemic normal. Not some sort of altered-reality where things are only kind or normal. There’s not really the emphasis on a middle-ground “partial reopening with social distancing” that we see here.